Outdoors: Prepare for unexpected weather

ROB STREETER

Published 11:33 pm, Thursday, June 13, 2013

This past weekend the weather forecast called for showers in the afternoon, so with a lot of optimism I set off with the boat to go fish. I had a good morning, and just before noon, I decided it was time to go home and get the boat covered up. I didn't make it home before the storm hit.

If you were wandering around the prairie in the 1800s, there was no advanced warning when life-threatening weather cropped up. While we now have much better science to predict the weather, we still can get surprised. Just look at the tragic loss of life we have seen in recent tornadoes. We also have seen that we are not exempt from such weather here in New York.

If you have spent enough time outdoors, sooner or later you probably have found yourself in questionable weather circumstances that came up without warning. I had a near miss with lightning while bowhunting in Maine and another while paddling on a small lake.

For most hunters, hikers, anglers and campers, there are a few types of weather that can be a problem. Lightning took 29 lives in 2010 and injured more than 180 people in the United States in 2010. Thunderstorms are not something to take chances with while outdoors.

While you can't foresee every situation, basic safety for a storm calls for monitoring weather closely and trying to get inside an appropriate shelter. If you are out in a boat and hear thunder, get to shore quickly. If you can't make it to shore, crouch down in the middle of the boat as low as possible. If you are in the woods, look for an area with shorter trees, and crouch down away from the trunks. Getting down as low as possible is important, but laying on the ground is not good.

Sometimes with lightning, people feel their skin tingle or their hair stand on end just before it strikes. Trying to crouch down and get lower is the best bet.

Simple rain storms also can cause hypothermia for anyone who gets caught in a cold shower, even during the summer months. Fortunately, no matter what you like to do in the outdoors, there are plenty of rain suits that pack into a small size; there is no reason not to have one along in a boat or a pack.

Another outdoor hazard is flash flooding, which can endanger people in the backcountry. Some storms can dump inches of rain in a matter of an hour, causing streams to rise rapidly. Never chance crossing a flooding stream.

Winter weather also poses a danger, and you don't always have to wait for winter. We've encountered horizontal snow in Alaska during the first week in September.

There are a number of things that you can do to protect yourself. I have an application on my phone that is really for bowhunters, but it uses the location service in the phone to bring up a map that includes weather radar for your location. There are a number of apps available for smartphones that warn of hazardous weather and send alerts.

Of course, sometimes we cancel time afield and then find out that it was nice all day. Sometimes you just can't win.